The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday March 27, 2019 (NIV)

The Lord's Own People^(A)

7 ^(B)“The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are going to occupy, and he will drive many nations out of it. As you advance, he will drive out seven nations larger and more powerful than you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ² When the Lord your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy. ³ Do not marry any of them, and do not let your children marry any of them, ⁴ because then they would lead your children away from the Lord to worship other gods. If that happens, the Lord will be angry with you and destroy you at once. ^5 (C)So then, tear down their altars, break their sacred stone pillars in pieces, cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah, and burn their idols. ^6 (D)Do this because you belong to the Lord your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.

⁷ “The Lord did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth. ⁸ But the Lord loved you and wanted to keep the promise that he made to your ancestors. That is why he saved you by his great might and set you free from slavery to the king of Egypt. ^9 (E)Remember that the Lord your God is the only God and that he is faithful. He will keep his covenant and show his constant love to a thousand generations of those who love him and obey his commands, ¹⁰ but he will not hesitate to punish those who hate him. ¹¹ Now then, obey what you have been taught; obey all the laws that I have given you today.

The Blessings of Obedience^(F)

^12 (G)“If you listen to these commands and obey them faithfully, then the Lord your God will continue to keep his covenant with you and will show you his constant love, as he promised your ancestors. ¹³ He will love you and bless you, so that you will increase in number and have many children; he will bless your fields, so that you will have grain, wine, and olive oil; and he will bless you by giving you many cattle and sheep. He will give you all these blessings in the land that he promised your ancestors he would give to you. ¹⁴ No people in the world will be as richly blessed as you. None of you nor any of your livestock will be sterile. ¹⁵ The Lord will protect you from all sickness, and he will not bring on you any of the dreadful diseases that you experienced in Egypt, but he will bring them on all your enemies. ¹⁶ Destroy every nation that the Lord your God places in your power, and do not show them any mercy. Do not worship their gods, for that would be fatal.

¹⁷ “Do not tell yourselves that these peoples outnumber you and that you cannot drive them out. ¹⁸ Do not be afraid of them; remember what the Lord your God did to the king of Egypt and to all his people. ¹⁹ Remember the terrible plagues that you saw with your own eyes, the miracles and wonders, and the great power and strength by which the Lord your God set you free. In the same way that he destroyed the Egyptians, he will destroy all these people that you now fear. ²⁰ He will even cause panic^[a] among them and will destroy those who escape and go into hiding. ²¹ So do not be afraid of these people. The Lord your God is with you; he is a great God and one to be feared. ²² Little by little he will drive out these nations as you advance. You will not be able to destroy them all at once, for, if you did, the number of wild animals would increase and be a threat to you. ²³ The Lord will put your enemies in your power and make them panic until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will put their kings in your power. You will kill them, and they will be forgotten. No one will be able to stop you; you will destroy everyone. ²⁵ Burn their idols. Do not desire the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourselves. If you do, that will be fatal, because the Lord hates idolatry. ²⁶ Do not bring any of these idols into your homes, or the same curse will be on you that is on them. You must hate and despise these idols, because they are under the Lord's curse.

A Good Land to Be Possessed

8 “Obey faithfully all the laws that I have given you today, so that you may live, increase in number, and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you on this long journey through the desert these past forty years, sending hardships to test you, so that he might know what you intended to do and whether you would obey his commands. ^3 (H)He made you go hungry, and then he gave you manna to eat, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did this to teach you that you must not depend on bread alone to sustain you, but on everything that the Lord says. ⁴ During these forty years your clothes have not worn out, nor have your feet swollen up. ^5 (I)Remember that the Lord your God corrects and punishes you just as parents discipline their children. ⁶ So then, do as the Lord has commanded you: live according to his laws and obey him. ⁷ The Lord your God is bringing you into a fertile land—a land that has rivers and springs, and underground streams gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land that produces wheat and barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and honey. ⁹ There you will never go hungry or ever be in need. Its rocks have iron in them, and from its hills you can mine copper. ¹⁰ You will have all you want to eat, and you will give thanks to the Lord your God for the fertile land that he has given you.

Warnings against Forgetting the Lord

^11 (J)“Make certain that you do not forget the Lord your God; do not fail to obey any of his laws that I am giving you today. ¹² When you have all you want to eat and have built good houses to live in ¹³ and when your cattle and sheep, your silver and gold, and all your other possessions have increased, ¹⁴ be sure that you do not become proud and forget the Lord your God who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. ¹⁵ He led you through that vast and terrifying desert where there were poisonous snakes and scorpions. In that dry and waterless land he made water flow out of solid rock for you. ¹⁶ In the desert he gave you manna to eat, food that your ancestors had never eaten. He sent hardships on you to test you, so that in the end he could bless you with good things. ¹⁷ So then, you must never think that you have made yourselves wealthy by your own power and strength. ¹⁸ Remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you the power to become rich. He does this because he is still faithful today to the covenant that he made with your ancestors. ¹⁹ Never forget the Lord your God or turn to other gods to worship and serve them. If you do, then I warn you today that you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰ If you do not obey the Lord, then you will be destroyed just like those nations that he is going to destroy as you advance.

Jesus at the Home of Simon the Pharisee

³⁶ A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him, and Jesus went to his house and sat down to eat. ^37 (A)In that town was a woman who lived a sinful life. She heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee's house, so she brought an alabaster jar full of perfume ³⁸ and stood behind Jesus, by his feet, crying and wetting his feet with her tears. Then she dried his feet with her hair, kissed them, and poured the perfume on them. ³⁹ When the Pharisee saw this, he said to himself, “If this man really were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him; he would know what kind of sinful life she lives!”

⁴⁰ Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Yes, Teacher,” he said, “tell me.”

⁴¹ “There were two men who owed money to a moneylender,” Jesus began. “One owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other owed him fifty. ⁴² Neither of them could pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Which one, then, will love him more?”

⁴³ “I suppose,” answered Simon, “that it would be the one who was forgiven more.”

“You are right,” said Jesus. ⁴⁴ Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not welcome me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I came. ⁴⁶ You provided no olive oil for my head, but she has covered my feet with perfume. ⁴⁷ I tell you, then, the great love she has shown proves that her many sins have been forgiven. But whoever has been forgiven little shows only a little love.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ The others sitting at the table began to say to themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ But Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Women Who Accompanied Jesus

8 Some time later Jesus traveled through towns and villages, preaching the Good News about the Kingdom of God. The twelve disciples went with him, ^2 (B)and so did some women who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (who was called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had been driven out; ³ Joanna, whose husband Chuza was an officer in Herod's court; and Susanna, and many other women who used their own resources to help Jesus and his disciples.

A Cry for Help^[a]

12 ^(A)Any who love knowledge want to be told when they are wrong. It is stupid to hate being corrected.